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‘Anastasia’ Review: The Real Thing

A musical about a Romanov pretender that could have been a retread of earlier movie versions instead is full of surprises.

By

Edward Rothstein

April 25, 2017 4:42 p.m. ET

I expected the new musical “Anastasia” to be something it is not: an imposter on Broadway, pretending to lineage and power, making sure that everyone is reminded, over and over again, of its heritage—in this case, of the animated 20th Century Fox film of 1997 with the same title. That would have made the show a bit like its subject: a young woman who pretends to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, 10 years after the czar’s daughter had apparently been mowed down with the rest of her family by the Bolsheviks. Only here...